Close to a year after her assassination Dana Seetahal will be honoured by the Law School and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The joint reception will be held on Monday for Seetahal who attended the university between 1998 to 1999. According to a release from the university, the function will be held in the Humphrey Forum at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and will include a short programme to honour Seetahal’s memory and “to explore the larger context in which her tragic death took place.”
Keynoting the event will be Tony Fernandes, director for Africa and the Middle East at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the US State Department. He will also speak on the risks attorneys face when prosecuting high profile cases involving organised crime. On June 24, United States Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield said Seetahal was murdered by a trans-national drug organisation with operations in T&T. At the time he was speaking from Washington, DC, in a tele-conference with Caribbean journalists.
“This was clearly not a crime of passion. It was not a crime of opportunity where someone felt they should steal her handbag and then found they had to shoot her. This was a well-planned and orchestrated hit. “This is not something you plan easily. It is organised crime with an international player that has a crime organisation with presence in T&T,” Brownfield said.
On May 4, Seetahal was shot dead just outside the Woodbrook Youth Facility, Hamilton Holder Street, as she was on her way to her apartment at One Woodbrook Place after leaving the Ma Pau casino on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook. Residents reported hearing a volley of gunshots followed by screeching tyres. By the time they contacted police and ran outside to check, they found Seetahal slumped over the steering wheel of her light blue Volkswagen Touareg. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Other speakers for the honorary function will include a member of Seetahal’s fellowship cohort, members of her former host family, members of the Minnesota/T&T community and Toni Pierre, a T&T lawyer and colleague of Seetahal. Her murder has been listed as top priority by the Police Service. The man who police believed executed the hit on Seetahal was himself killed by police.
David “Junior” Baker, 28, was one of the key suspects involved in the well-planned assassination and was killed on August 19. According to police, Baker, 28, his nephew, Kareem Edwards, 19, and Reuben Richins, their neighbour, were at a house at Kurban Ali Drive, Calcutta #2, Freeport, when they were shot. Members of the North Eastern Division Task Force went to the house in search of Baker, who had six outstanding warrants for murder and gun-related offences. Police said as they entered the house they were shot at and they returned fire, killing the men.
The three were all shot in the chest and taken to the Couva Health Facility where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Police said two bulletproof vests, a .38 revolver and a .45 pistol were recovered.